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Social & Emotional Development
Developing Relationships with Peers & Adults
WiseTip: SE-REL-M2436-E01A

Facilitate imitation and pretend play with toddlers by providing toys such as dolls, dishes, cars, trucks or blocks that can be used for pretend or make believe play.

1, 2, 3, 4

  1. New Jersey Birth to Three Early Learning Standards. (2013). New Jersey Council for Young Children.

  2. Fiese, B. H. (1990). Playful relationships: A contextual analysis of mother-toddler interaction and symbolic play. Child Development, 61(5), 1648–1656. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130772 (Level IV) /n/n3. Kwon, K.-A., Bingham, G., Lewsader, J., Jeon, H.-J., & Elicker, J. (2013). Structured Task versus Free Play: The Influence of Social Context on Parenting Quality, Toddlers’ Engagement with Parents and Play Behaviours, and Parent-Toddler Language Use. Child & Youth Care Forum, 42(3), 207–224. (Level IV)

  3. Gardner-Neblett, N., Holochwost, S.J., Gallagher, K.C., Iruka, I.U., Odom, S.L., & Pungello,E.P. (2016). Guided versus independent play: Which better sustains attention among infants and toddlers? Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE). (Level III)

24-36 months
Environment
WHY IT MATTERS

Symbolic or pretend play

Symbolic Play - Play that occurs when a child transforms the physical environment into a symbol. In the symbolic play, children use a variety of objects in symbolic play.1 They learn to transform objects, substituting them for other objects and acting toward them as if they were those other objects.2 For example, a broomstick is a horse, and a paper plate is a steering wheel.

1. Santrock, J. W. (2011). Child Development (14th ed.). New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Education.

2. Smith, P. K. (2007). Pretend play and children’s cognitive and literacy development: Sources of evidence and some lessons from the past. In K. A. Roskos & J. F. Christie (Eds.), Play and literacy in early childhood. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

with toys, helps build the necessary language, self and emotional regulation as well as imitation and turn-taking skills required for building relationships.
1
  1. Fiese, B. H. (1990). Playful relationships: A contextual analysis of mother-toddler interaction and symbolic play. Child Development, 61(5), 1648–1656. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130772 (Level IV)

Children love toys and need to be able to interact with objects to construct knowledge about the properties of their world.

2
  1. Hagens, H. E. (1997). Strategies for encouraging peer interactions in infant/toddler programmes. Early Childhood Education Journal, 25, 147–149. (Level III) USA.

Free, non-directive play (such as imitative and pretend play), which allows the child to take the lead in play, was found to be most effective for developing these skills.

3, 4

  1. Kwon, K.-A., Bingham, G., Lewsader, J., Jeon, H.-J., & Elicker, J. (2013). Structured Task versus Free Play: The Influence of Social Context on Parenting Quality, Toddlers’ Engagement with Parents and Play Behaviours, and Parent-Toddler Language Use. Child & Youth Care Forum, 42(3), 207–224. (Level IV)

  2. Gardner-Neblett, N., Holochwost, S.J., Gallagher, K.C., Iruka, I.U., Odom, S.L., & Pungello,E.P. (2016). Guided versus independent play: Which better sustains attention among infants and toddlers? Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE). (Level III)